The Field Day for Conservation Agriculture in Musanze District

On Thursday, the 25th Feb 2016 in Musanze District, Friends Peace House (FPH) celebrated the field day with groups of farmers located in Gataraga sector. These groups, TWIBUMBE NSHUTI and INYENYELI, both have 56 members and finished the training in growing maize (corn) within Friends Peace House fields. That training took them the whole season, from August 2015 to now. All group members and FPH leaders were in uniform! A blue T-shirt with these words: Ishuri ry’abahinzi mu murima ku guhinga mu buryo bw’Imana (Field training in farming in God’s way).

The celebrations took place in Gataraga sector, where we started to visit the farms in which corn is grown. Everything was very wonderful!!

From left to right (second row): Rev. Bonaventure Hamenyimana, Friends Church Ruhengeri quarterly meeting representative, Antoine Samvura, FPH coordinator, and Richard Makuza, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Representative at the ceremony, on their way to visit the farms

At the farms, group members explained to the guests what they had learned during the season and the advantages of the “Farming in God’s Way” method. They said that they are already applying these methods at their own farms because productivity is very high compared to the traditional method.

The Musanze district Conservation Agriculture staff showed how they had divided the farms into four different zones. For experimental purposes, each zone used a different farming method—organic fertilizer, chemical fertilizer, both organic and chemical fertilizers, and one zone without fertilizers. He said everyone is now aware of the importance of each method.

Antoine Samvura, FPH coordinator said that it is time for us, Rwandans, to develop ourselves through involvement of activities that eradicate famine and to save for the future. He added that FPH is widening this program in every sector of this district in order to contribute to Rwandan development.

Richard Makuza, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) representative said that he is grateful for the activities in this region and advised the farmers to continue using this method on their farms. He also asked them to be active to the next season’s training.